Bethesda to allow Steam workshop modders to charge for mods

[Deleted]

www.bethblog.com/2015/04/23/skyrim-workshop-now-supports-paid-mods/

Short, brief, before-I-head-out-the-door opinion: I think this is a bad idea.

Long opinion: Coming soon.

[TheChosen]

Oh boy. This thing will probably tremendously backfire. One thing people like about mods is that they're free and now that mod makers are given easy and quick way to monetize those I'd expect lot of people to grab the opportunity. I mean, its cool to have an option to support mod makers, but to pay for mods? Its like giving everyone a chance to do their own Horse Armor DLC.

I guess to combat abuse and everything, mod makers only get 25% of the profits (or so I've heard), with the rest going to Valves and Bethesda's pockets. I can see the point, but 25% is not much of support.

There's probably gonna be some copyright clashes too, like imagine if someone puts a price tag on that mod which adds Kenny Loggins Danger Zone to the game? And what about if someone puts up someone else's mod for sale?

[Weasel]

Apr 23, 2015 13:39:17 GMT -5 TheChosen said:

There's probably gonna be some copyright clashes too, like imagine if someone puts a price tag on that mod which adds Kenny Loggins Danger Zone to the game? And what about if someone puts up someone else's mod for sale?

Then we run into the more innocuous but still troubling issues of mods based on existing content. The Doom community almost treats this as a tradition; the fact is, a lot of people make up for their lack of ability to create new sounds and models and such by basing their work off of others'. This opens up a lot of cans of worms that, in my opinion, really ought to have stayed dormant.

[mitchykins]

Mods are a labor of love, and done to create new fun in various games. And really, if you're doing it for money, you're not doing it right, I know modding isn't exactly an easy job, but that doesn't mean you should go out and start charging money for it, unless it resembles a full on game (see Garry's Mod).

Probably should have been an optional donate button, but no, now we have a handful of mods locked behind a pay wall, developers and publishers are getting 75% of the cut, and already we have a giant PR nightmare. If Valve knew what was best for them, they'd get rid of this feature and refund the purchases before it's too late.

[Feynman]

My biggest fear is that this will turn Steam Workshop into the equivalent of Steam Greenlight/Early Access, where hordes of crappy products that really shouldn't be asking for money quickly overwhelm the things that are actually good.

[Deleted]

I return.

I am still baffled as to what Valve hopes to accomplish with this and why they think it would at all benefit the consumer. Or even themselves.

Furthermore it's a questionable thing to prioritize when there's other problems with the service. Then again, at this point I'm used to tech companies spending R&D money figuring out how to pretend they know what they're doing.

Between this, inventory scambots, betting scandals in competitive Counterstrike, everything involving 90% of Steam Greenlight, and the continued lack of Half-Life 3, I think I'm going to switch over all of my game purchases---ALL of them---to GOG now. If that means I miss some multiplayer games or exclusives, so be it.

[Deleted]

Seems a bit extreme. I've honestly never had a problem with Steam, but do what suits your life.

[Deleted]

Apr 24, 2015 0:54:46 GMT -5 @jasonx said:

Seems a bit extreme. I've honestly never had a problem with Steam, but do what suits your life.

I simply put my money where my mouth is. I don't reward adding features I didn't bargain for.

If you want to use Steam, be my guest. I'm just going with the option that doesn't make my blood boil with uncertainty.

[geishaboy]

Brace for incoming shit-storm.

[Deleted]

Edited post to be less shit-storm-y (at least by geishaboy's definition), much as I would like to just say what I wanted to say. I was HOPING I was being level-headed enough, geishaboy, but I found your lack of faith in me here annoying.

Intent of post still reflected. Will keep it that way for now.

[Deleted]

Why not just not buy mods on Steam if you don't want to pay for mods? Video games always seem like such an odd thing for people to make supposed moral stances on. If you repurchase on GOG everything you already own on Steam, you're only helping CD Projekt Red. Valve isn't hurt by that at all. They'll have no idea that you switched, or even why.

It just seems to me that people should reserve the moral stances for things that are truly important, like local, state, and federal political issues. Things that actually change peoples' lives in important ways. Video games are entertainment, after all.

[geishaboy]

Apr 24, 2015 1:15:24 GMT -5 @houseofpun said:

Edited post to be less shit-storm-y (at least by geishaboy's definition), much as I would like to just say what I wanted to say. I was HOPING I was being level-headed enough, geishaboy, but I found your lack of faith in me here annoying.

Intent of post still reflected. Will keep it that way for now.

I was referring to the situation with Valve in general not the post you made. I didn't actually read the post you made. If I was talking directly to you I would have quoted you, like I am now. I meant shit storm in the sense that Valve is going to have to batten down the hatches. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Go and change your post back to whatever it originally was. You should *never* edit your posts based on someone else's reaction. Free speech!

[Deleted]

<abbr>Jason_X: </abbr>I like to vote on things. I voted for my browser choice by switching to Pale Moon from Firefox after Mozilla's CEO got in hot water over Prop 8, and after Mozilla decided to install HTML5 DRM in Firefox. I vote in local, state and national elections. In this case I'm just voting with my wallet for the vendor I find most pleasant to deal with.

geishaboy: HERP A DERP I feel smart now. I'll, uhhh, re-post my original post in the morning when I am not running on fumes.

[geishaboy]

No problem.

Also, I have been using Pale Moon for about a year now and it is the most stable browser I have ever used. Quick too.

[Snarboo]

I'm not for or against this, but it does raise some interesting questions:

1. What's stopping a third party from taking a free, existing mod, "tweaking" it, then turning it into a paid mod without the original creator's permission? Or vice versa: a paid mod that is taken, cloned, and released for free?
2. Can paid mods be "pirated", and if so, can you be Steam banned for doing so? Does Steam have any way of knowing how you got the content?
3. Let's say two mods that do the same basic thing are competing, and one starts charging money. Can they have the free mod taken down because it infringes upon their paid mod?
4. What recourse does a mod author have if options 1 and 3 happen to them?

Unless there's some protection in place to authenticate mods that are meant to be paid for, I'm not sure how this is supposed to work. The idea of a mod having DRM is kinda laughable, but a scenario like this pretty much demands it, otherwise people will just pirate it. At the very least, I don't see a mod being able to charge more than a few cents with free alternatives available, unless every mod starts charging money.